The present invention relates to managing access and operation of a system remotely. More specifically the invention relates to a method of operating a telematics system and a telematics system for managing access and operation of one or more vehicles remotely.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
In particular, from car sharing applications, it is known that users have access to a vehicle by means of so called token. A token is generally a hardware component usually incorporating an electronic chip for identification and authentication of users. The term “token” is used here for any kind of hardware which can save and transmit information for the purpose of identification and authentication. For example, a user can have a customer card in which a RFID-Chip is integrated and hold the customer card on a reading device of the motor vehicle to initiate an authentication procedure.
To verify whether a user may gain access to a vehicle via a token is permitted, telematics systems are oftentimes utilized. The term “telematics system” normally includes two data processing units which are interconnected through a telecommunication system, wherein one unit is a sender and the other unit is a receiver communicating over a media which enables communication between the sender and the receiver. For example a reading device integrated in a vehicle can communicate to a server so as the reading device reads the authentication data of the user from a token and transmits the information to a server, which checks the presence of a valid reservation for the user. In the presence of a valid reservation, the server sends a confirming signal to the reading device in the motor vehicle. As a consequence, the vehicle is unlocked and the vehicle can be started, optionally after the user has entered a code via a user interface in the vehicle.
It is desirable and advantageous to improve monitoring of vehicles whose access and driving authorization is operable through a telematics system so as to obviate prior art shortcomings.